Seth Rogencan’t do anything casually.
“So [Stitcher] was like, may we suggest this guy Richard Parks III?
And he turned out to be the absolute perfect person to accomplish what I had envisioned.”
Credit: SiriusXM’s Stitcher
The first episode drops today, and the remaining episodes will release weekly.
Below, Rogen and Parks discuss the podcast (publicly) for the first time.
Richard has a way of editing and bringing in music and clips that helped.
He made it very different from the typical podcast.
I think the power of this medium is that it forces people to bring their own imaginations to it.
It forces the listener to be involved more so than in television or film.
How did you go for the guests for each episode?
Especially since it’s not solely comprised of celebrities.
So I thought, that sounds like a good story, let’s bring him on.
Did you give any guidelines to the guests before they came on?
PARKS: Going into these interviews, I knew nothing about what people were going to say.
I think Seth probably knew next to nothing.
ROGEN: I had basically a one-sentence description.
PARKS:As a producer, that usually makes me very nervous.
But also, what you get is Seth hearing this for the first time and reacting really authentically.
And there’s an energy in that jot down of interaction.
This isn’t a journalistic endeavor, but did your participation involve questioning what happened at all?
ROGEN:I’m not going into these interviews trying to poke holes in their version of what happened.
Sometimes adding another voice to round out the story will take us in a whole new direction.
We’re able to glean a different meaning and that is a really fun exercise.
We created something out of the ingredients the guest gave us.
Does any one episode stick out as a story that took a particularly surprising turn?
PARKS: The first episode, the Quinta Brunson episode.
It has this structure that’s almost like a triangle where the concept spreads out as it goes.
ROGEN:I’ve been the subject of podcasts that become clickbait many, many times.
And a lot of these podcasts, I feel like part of thegoalis that it’s controversial.
It’s also more of a byproduct that some of the guests are famous.
When I wrote my book, the whole time I was thinking: I’m not that special.
And if I have a whole book of funny stories, then other people definitely do.
I mean, there are jokes in the podcast, and comedians make jokes that are crazy.
The podcastisfull of them, but it’s not a current events-based subject matter.
By that alone it doesn’t have the effect of giving sound bites or headlines.
Now that you’ve done this, what’s your takeaway on what makes a really good story?
ROGEN:It’s helpful if it’s something that had an impact on your life or your work.
Is there really a story about someone s—-ing their pants at Disney World?
ROGEN:There is!
And I’m also really excited for everyone to hear the grizzly bear story.
I’ve never met anybody who’s experienced anything like it.
I’m so grateful that he trusted us with the story.
And it’s funny!
It’s not the most serious episode by a long shot.
